1. Field
This field relates to software, and, more particularly to custom software for an operating system that executes for each user.
2. Description
Computer systems have attained widespread use for providing computer power to many segments of today""s modern society. A personal computer system can usually be defined as a desk top, floor standing, or portable microcomputer that includes a system unit having a system processor and associated volatile and nonvolatile memory, a display monitor, a keyboard, one or more diskette drives, a fixed disk storage device and an optional printer. One of the distinguishing characteristics of these systems is the use of a system board to electrically connect these components together. These personal computer systems are information handling systems which are designed primarily to give independent computing power to a single user (or a group of users in the case of personal computers which serve as computer server systems) and are inexpensively priced for purchase by individuals or small businesses.
A personal computer system may also include one or a plurality of I/O devices (i.e. peripheral devices) which are coupled to the system processor and which perform specialized functions. Examples of I/O devices include modems, sound and video devices or specialized communication devices. Mass storage devices such as hard disks, CD-ROM drives and magneto-optical drives are also considered to be peripheral devices.
Manufacturers of personal computers often pre-install an operating system, such as the Microsoft Windows 95(trademark) operating system, the Microsoft Windows NT(trademark) operating system, or the IBM OS/2(trademark) operating system. These modern operating systems are increasingly large in term of both complexity and storage requirements, often requiring several megabytes of hard drive space. When a manufacturer installs an operating system, the manufacturer often uses another computer to copy an image of the operating system from a separate hard drive onto the target hard drive being created for the customer using a specialized software program.
Copying an image of a hard drive, rather than installing the operating system on each customer system, saves considerable time. However, once the image is created, it is quite difficult to customize the customer""s system without either creating and copying a new image or turning on the customer""s machine and providing the customizations.
Creating multiple images and copying the image most suited to the customer""s request is helpful when installing standard applications, such as the Microsoft Office(trademark) suite of applications, which are requested for multiple customers. Multiple images increase the complexity of the manufacturing process as well as increasing the computer requirements for making the images available to the installation process. Furthermore, the manufacturer may wish to make small customizations to help the user get acquainted with the new computer and to help build brand identity and loyalty for the manufacturer. In addition, some large corporate customers may request a particular customization, such as an application to display the corporate PC usage guidelines to the customer""s employee.
A computer system and method for modifying a graphical user interface of the present invention allows customization of the graphical user interface, such as a windows type operating system. When invoked, the system reads one or more configuration files related to the operating system which invokes an installation program to install the custom desktop components. These configuration files may include a registry The custom desktop component includes graphical images added to the graphical user interface during such first invocation. The graphical image is related to an application or Active Desktop component which will be executed when the user selects the graphical image from the desktop layout. The computer system and method may also allow for several users to use the same computer system with a separate profile and desktop layout for each user. In such multiple user systems, the modification occurs for each of the several users. Following the execution of the application or Active Desktop component, the system may remove the graphical image associated with such application or Active Desktop component from the graphical user interface.
A manufacturing process of the present invention is useful in manufacturing systems with graphical user interfaces that are modified upon a first invocation by the user. The manufacturing process includes copying the operating system, configuration files, application programs, graphical image files, and installation programs onto the computer systems nonvolatile storage device. The configuration files are set to trigger the installation programs to execute upon the first invocation of the operating system by the user. The installation programs have been customized to perform modifications to the graphical user interface as described above.